Imprisoned In Stone
by Killer-San
Summary: Are all plants as beautiful as a Sakura flower? When the blossom falls, so does the fly trap.


Disclaimer: Do I look like I own anything?

A/N: I hope you guys enjoy this half hearted attempt at Zetsu/Sakura as a request from TemeSasuke. I don't really like this pairing, it's odd, but seeing as it's unpopular I decided to cave in and do it. Be warned, my children, there be plenty of cliches ahead. Ah, also, to discern who is who in Zetsu's situation...I will use different Italics and bolding for each of them.

_White Zetsu - **Black Zetsu**_

* * *

"Without water, the plant will eventually wither away and die, which is exactly what us gardeners do not want for our blossoms..." - Karthy Mcglenn

* * *

Fascination was bordering obsession. His black half wanted her for himself, to devour away at her very soul. But him, the purer of the sides... even he wanted to pluck her from this garden of a world and cherish her. But he couldn't, life wasn't as simple... The only defense that stopped the darker of the sides from over powering the white was the strong, child-like will to protect the beauty that the world had created. Constantly the pushing thoughts of stealing her away from her family and friends were shoved back deeper and deeper into the crevice of their minds, the images of her body, being ravished in the attentiveness of his care for her. The protective half couldn't do that to something that blossomed like she did, she who even blossomed in the midst of destruction. He did not want to destroy the gentle glow she gave off.

No, he wouldn't let the dark side of his self consume him because he knew that she could not bloom within a monster's meal.

Flowers only bloomed when they were out in the sunlight, little thin arms stretched towards the sky. Once you plucked them from their garden and contained them in a vase they withered. He wouldn't let that happen to his Cherry Blossom. Constantly, he watched her, seeking to protect her in the most dangerous of situations. To become her prince charming, her lover, _her beast._ Some times, he was questioned as to why he continued this one-sided infatuation by Madara, who had caught wind of it when Sakura was a mere twelve year old girl... the only answer he could give was "I don't want anything from her," which wasn't a real answer to the question provided on the surface. But, if you looked below the surface, under the twisting cascades of water, you would see what his true meaning was. _He wasn't watching her just because he wanted to eat her_.

But both sides of Zetsu _did_ want something, each a different thing that the other protested too_._ It was an on-going war between them, caused many arguments that ended up in them splitting apart from each other for breaks from the madness, only reconnecting to feed and for missions.

Pieces of fossil and root in the ground brushed past Zetsu's cheeks as he fazed through the ground, on a mission somewhere within the land of Mist to collect information on a fugitive that owed money to the Akatsuki. This was a more suited job for Kakuzu in the least, one much more money happy than himself who would take care of the man immediately. But, apparently, Kakuzu was not as good as collecting valuable information that was needed before killing the victim, as demonstrated in previous events.

Three hours he had already traveled towards his destination, when he suddenly was engrossed with the feeling of a heavy, familiar chakra among others that had dwindled to nothing. Normally, it would have been something he would have just floated past without a second thought, but even there in his place inside of the cold soil, he could have sworn he caught a whiff of that perfume she wore, that mocked the sent of strawberries.

Rising out of the ground only about up to his waist, it took two seconds for the putrid scent of iron to sting his nose. The darker side of himself took the whole scene in, marveling at the amount of food there was for him to take, while the white side panicked, his pulse jumping in his neck. Once again he flared his chakra, searching for that one he'd had sworn he had just felt a few minutes ago. But it was gone, vanished along with several other smaller chakra. And then, he saw her. His blossom, his secret lover.

She was there, sprawled out among the dead, and immediately the yelling started. It was so loud, hateful, mournful, he wanted to recede into himself and forget his darker half's words.

**_"If you had just let me take her this wouldn't have happened, Zetsu."_**

_"You would have hurt her..."_

**_"..."_**

He knelt next to her, his hands shaking as he took her own and searched for her pulse in her wrist, a concerned frown appearing on the white half of his face. The lighter half, He could feel his mind slipping as the minutes stretched on without any response. The blossom...the blossom had wilted.

"What the fuck are you doing here, Zetsu?"

He didn't turn around, instead settling her hand very carefully on the ground by her body.

_"Who did this?"_

"Who the fuck do you think? I was bored and Kakuzu was away hunting a bounty. I figured I'd save some souls but these fucks got in my way." Zetsu heard material moving, suggesting that Hidan had just shrugged as he normally did. Such a care free person.

**_"You killed our blossom.."_**

"What are you even talking about? Damn. Just eat the fucking girl and get on with it, if thats what you're here for." Hidan made a face in Zetsu's direction, that he could feel boring through his skin.

_"No."_

**_"I don't want to, even though she looks delicious..."_**

Hidan watched in amazement, and disgust, as Black Zetsu lifted her wrist delicately and inserted her finger into his mouth in the most gentle way he's seen the fly trap act towards a meal. It might have been sweet in Hidan's own twisted opinion, if she wasn't dead and he wasn't tasting her sorely for the purposes of eating her.

**_"She tastes just like I thought she would..."_**

"Dude just fuckin' eat the thing, or leave it." Hidan's noise scrunched up, now obviously disgusted. "You shouldn't play with your food."

The plant-like beast collected the once lovely woman in his arms like a child, and stood tall against the blistering heat of the sun, choosing to ignore Hidan now that he had his prize. Even death had not shaken the beauty from her face.

_"I don't eat blossoms."_

"Wait! Zetsu Er-.." He was walking away before he would let Hidan continue, his words fading to the back of his mind like unwanted toys by a child. He would head towards the mountains that overshadowed the bloodstained field, leaving the utterly confused Jashinist behind.

''Where are you going?"

_"Away."_

So much for being descriptive, but it didn't really matter to Hidan. Shrugging, the silver haired man turned and resumed blessing the cadavers in the name of Jashin, momentarily cursing Zetsu for taking the woman away before he had been able to save her soul.

Sakura lay in Zetsu's arms, his whole life in his hands. He'd only ever thought of her, only ever wanted her from the moment he'd layed his honey-golden eyes on her. He'd seen how she treated others with such kindness and love from his hidden place in her life, and all he'd ever wanted from her was that. That adoration.

But, now, with an early death his blossom would wilt, and remained only a shadow of what it had once been. The blossom would never bloom completely again, it would be preserved half awake.

He fazed through the ground, holding her against his torso as he approached their destination. It hadn't occurred to him until now that his other half, that dwelled in the color black, hadn't spoken up about what he was planning to do. Surely he knew, seeing as their mind had that attachment, as well as their heart. It was why he shared the same emotion for the sweet little blossom, although he acted it out in a different way than the white side did.

These thoughts danced around in his head as he rose from the ground at the highest peak in the mountain, his cloak tearing at the bottoms as they got caught in the dying bushes in such a high altitude. Her resting place was perfect, because all of the life there was barren as if it were mourning her eternally. He stepped over to a flat surface face of the mountain, holding her against him with one hand as the other pressed against the rocky surface.

**_" If you want to kill yourself leave me out of it."_**

The sound of his other half's voice shook him throughly, and he frowned, letting his darker half have control of it's arm. He should have remembered that his such feelings where not shared by his counterpart.

_"Sorry..."_

An overflow of greed, and hunger, over-flooded him from Zetsu as the darker side became dominant, initially splitting them in half. When they had separated, they left each other with a small bit of the fly trap that allowed them to travel. White Zetsu only stared, and held side held Sakura tightly to him; He'd forgotten the darkside only wanted to eat her. But, the black side of him only stood, watching him with wary eye

**_"Why are you doing this for someone who isn't even alive, and didn't even knew you existed outside of an enemy?"_**

_"Because I love her." _Came his response, quick, without a second thought. He pressed his back into the flat surface of the rock, letting the fly trap dissipate completely around his waist before he started to sink away into the hard gray material.

**_"Wait!" _**Zetsu reached out for him, stretching out long black fingers as if to give him a hand, a hand that might have his life.**_ "You'll die if you phase without the fly trap, Zetsu."_**

_"I know, Zetsu."_

_**"..." **_He let his hand recede, biting into his lips until they bled. He could feel him, even apart as they were. He could feel the one who was just as a brother, just as a friend...

_"Keep an eye on Tobi for me." _

Then, the white half was completely immerged in rock, the girl hugged into his arms. No visible trace that he had ever even been on this earth, other than the fact that one ninja would have gone missing from the world, one that people would have missed. But that ninja would have been her, for no one could love a beast.

As he let his own part of the fly trap begin to cover him, already stinging from the burning heat of the sun, he couldn't help but give into those emotions he didn't understand.

**_"You know Zetsu..She never would have excepted us." _**He whispered, watching the area in which his better half had just disappointed into. "**_I loved her too, you know." _**Another pause.**_ "I... just wouldn't have died for her..Because she wouldn't have died for me."_**

He stood there for a few more minutes before he let himself sink down into floor, moving away from the area in which his brother lay, suffocating. Just below the surface, just as he felt the purer side's chakra dwindle to nothing, he could have sworn a whisper sounded by his ear. Wither it be imagination, or truth, he would never truly know. But the words, the words, they would remain with him forever, wither they made sense or not to the situation. The last garbled words of an obsessed man, made to comfort just before death became unavoidable.

_"But she did die for us, she did."_


End file.
